Rati Agnihotri

Rati Agnihotri (Hindi: रति अग्निहोत्रि, Urdu: رتِ اَگنِہوترِ) (born 10 December 1960) is a veteran Indian actress. Her portfolio mainly includes films in Hindi-Urdu, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. She was born to a Sikh family.

Film career

Although she came from a traditional, conservative Punjabi family, she was allowed to model at age 10. When she was a teenager, her father relocated the family to Madras, Tamil Nadu because of his job. There, she attended Good Shepherd's Convent School and acted in a school play. Bharathiraja, one of Tamil film's famous directors, was in the audience and was searching for a heroine to star in his new film. He met with Rati's father and promised the film would wrap in a month. Her father reluctantly agreed, and a sixteen-year-old Rati was very excited to star in her first film, Pudhiya Varpukal (1979).

It was also her hero Bhagyaraj's first film, and he coached her with her lines by teaching her Tamil. The film became a blockbuster, with Rati an overnight sensation. Bharathiraja soon directed her in her second film, Niram Marada Pookkal (1979). Even though she was Punjabi, South Indian audiences embraced her as one of their own. She reciprocated by calling herself "Tamilian at heart" and calling "Madras" her home. She also starred in Telugu and Kannada films and made 32 films in...
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